what do you really want?

Theodore Levitt once told his MBA students at Harvard that People don’t want to buy a quarter inch drill they want a quarter inch hole.

This is a paradigm shifting statement. In that it is meant to inspire students that there is room for more innovation just need to be reminded of what to focus upon.

From an engineer’s perspective, to create that ¼ hole, first need to develop a method or a means to achieve this want. This ‘thing’ that will create the hole will have most likely some other requirements. Those requirements will drive some specifications. The output engineering activities will develop specifications to test. Once the specifications have been tested and pass, a final product will be delivered.